Passion for Justice Race- and religion-based hatred
and the destruction of the community
by David L. Ostendorf
Racism and hatred centered in the activites of parareligious and pseudoreligious groups is fueling much of the violence that occurs in contemporary American society. religion-based hatred. Bigoted and racially motivated attacks on persons and property are so commonpart of the terrible fabric of systemic violence that daily threatens persons of color that only the most destructive capture broad attention. When such attacks are driven by parareligion-based hatred, such as that espoused by Christian Identity or World Church of the Creator adherents, both the faith and civic communities are generally unprepared to grapple effectively with either the cause or the outcomes.
Hatred and violence are at the very core of the white supremacist movement in America. For the latter half of the twentieth century the virulently racist and anti-Semitic beliefs of Christian Identity have supported and driven this movement, shoring up the ideology of Ku Klux Klan members, birthing the Aryan Nation in the '70s, The Order and its campaign of terror in the '80s, and the militia movement in the '90s. Christian Identity asserts that persons of color are subhuman and that Jews are, literally, the offspring of the devil.
In this world view white Christians are the chosen people who inherited the promises of God given to the people of the ancient Hebrew texts. The ten lost tribes of Israel are said to have emigrated through Europe and into Great Britain, and then to have found their way to the United States, where today they continue their struggle to maintain the pure faith in a "mongrelized" culture. Christian Identity congregations can be found across the nation, fomenting the message of racial purity and firing the will of those white supremacists who claim religious justification for their violent acts.
Today Christian Identity is being challenged by the equally racist World Church of the Creator, whose "Our Race is Our Religion" mantra is appealing to disaffected white youth. Its members call for a racial holy war (the first two letters of each word forming the RAHOWA battle cry) has lured many new, young participants to the ranks of the East Peoria-based group, and the deadly shooting spree undertaken by one of its own last summer has elevated the "group" in the eyes of the white supremacist movement nationwide.
World Church of the Creator does not have a corner on youth organizing. Under the leadership of William Pierce, author of The Turner Diaries which inspired the Oklahoma City bombing, the neo-Nazi National Alliance has purchased Resistance Records, the nation's largest distributor of white-power music. Pierce understands that music is one of the best ways to bring youth into the racist fold, providing a seemingly innocuous cultural recruitment tool that readily undercuts public reaction to brown shirts and seig heils. The slick new Resistance magazine purveys the compact discs of dozens of European and American White Power bands, along with feature stories about bands and interviews with their leaders. Without question, Resistance Records will build the National Alliance and make significant money for it.
In high schools throughout metropolitan Chicago, students readily report that they have seen white-power symbols in their schools and neighborhoods. Many know other students who are into White Power music. Some affluent suburbs serve as unwitting incubators for youth who seek to become active in the white supremacist movement. At least one of those suburbs has a strip mall record store that openly sells White Power music and publicly ridicules antiracist youth who have sought changes in its sales policies.
In another Midwest city a key Christian Identity leader sought to organize one of his weekend "Bible seminars" to instruct followers in the Christian Identity way. City leaders didn't know that he had previously held a similar seminar in the community. Bookings at the local hotel hosting the seminar indicated a large turnout, reflecting the breadth of interest being generated by the event locally and throughout the region. Had the community not taken successful action in opposition to the meeting, the racist and anti-Semitic Christian Identity teachings would have unquestionably spread and taken root. Religious and business leaders took action, however, and the seminar was never held.
Ignoring bigotry and organized racist teachings and activity imperils community life, and is an open invitation for hate groups to set up shop. Religious communities have a particular responsibility to provide unwavering leadership in their commitment to counter these activities, which have made a mockery of Judeo-Christian texts, and which relish a mix of religion, racism, and violence that is and is meant to be shocking. The most effective antidote to race- and religion-based hatred is a combination of exposure, education, and organizing that provides community leaders the appropriate tools and the will for effective counteraction, and that never permits hatred to take root in the community.
In practical terms this means that organized hate groups, their leaders, and their racist and violent intent must be named and fully and publicly revealed in community forums, in religious gatherings, and in the media. The better those groups are understood, the better we are prepared to counter them. The brighter the light shed on them, the fewer shadows they have in which to operate. The more they are exposed for who they are and what they believe, the more we are able to build moral barriers against them and to undercut their potential impact.
It is critical that youth of all races be fully involved in this exposure, education, and organizing process. Young people know what is going on in their schools and communities. They see the White Power graffiti and hear the racist names and remarks.
The Chicago-based center for New Community is an independent faith-based organization committed to building democratic community. One of our projects, the Building Democracy Initiative, equips communities through the Midwest to counter organized hate-group activity. In the Center's work with youth in the past year alone, we have heard startling stories from high school students in remote rural areas, in mid-size and large cities and suburbs about hate group activity that adults did not know existed or refused to acknowledge. At a public gathering in response to a random killing of a young African American by two Aryan youth last fall in Indiana, counselors publicly stated that they knew of few problems in the high school with racism or prejudice, and painted a rather glowing picture of racial harmony. They were followed by two youth from their own school whose portrait of bigoted and racist activity was in startling contrast to their own, as if they were speaking of an entirely different place.
Failure to name the names, to talk openly about these realities, leaves youth wondering if adults really mean what they say about racism, hate groups, and violence. It leaves youth in a moral vacuum to work with mixed signals and find their own way ahead when they, in fact, need tools and support to engage in their own peer organizing to counter the hate that seeps into their communities.
Countering racist and religion-based hatred is a long-haul commitment and responsibility. This chronic sickness in the body politic does not go away quietly or quickly. The tendency of communities, however, is to react and respond when hatred makes a "public appearance," and then assume that the problem has been taken care of, i.e., that it has disappeared, once we have responded publicly.
For example, there are few events that so quickly mobilize a community like a Klan rally. Within days plans are made to hold counter-events, pronouncements in the press are abundant, and religious and civic leaders put aside all differences to decry the racist spectacle scheduled for their community.
But once the Klan has come and gone, once all the opposition statements are made and the counter-events completed, all too many communities go back to business as usual. The Klan rally, like other "racial incidents," is seen not as a symptom but as a cause of racism, not as fuel for long-term organizing and coalition- and community-building, but as fire to be put out. Deep commitment to community-building and community life means that every such "racial incident" is seen as an opportunity to enlarge the table at which leaders from the religious, civic, labor, business, education, health and other sectors grapple with the daily realities of bigotry and racism, of racist and religion-based hatred, in their midst.
There are many communities across the nation that understand and are attempting to live out this exposure, education, and organizing strategy for the long haul. Some, like those in northern Idaho where the Aryan Nation sank roots, have paid a heavy economic price for early years of indifference, but are now providing leadership in the process of recovering their community. The Montana Association of Churches has had a long-standing commitment to countering Christian Identity and other manifestations of religion-based hatred that have swept that state. Concerned Citizens of Topeka, Kansas, has organized to turn around the costly impact of a local bigot and hate monger on their city. Anti-racist youth are organizing across the Midwest and Northwest to counter the impact of White Power music. In countless communities, religious leaders have taken the initiative to organize public forums and educational gatherings to spread the word, name the names, and equip their people to counter racist and religion-based hatred, and to organize to build democratic community.
Racist and religion-based hatred seeks to destroy community. It is relentless in its pursuit and deadly in its practice. But it can and it must be countered by those who hold a larger vision of democratic community, and whose boldness and passion for justice will someday make that vision real.